(Please see Senate Appropriations Bill Directs BLM to Sell Wild Horses and Burros for Slaughter.)In media appearances Spokespersons for the beef industry have supported Senator Burns and it is widely believed that this legislation, surreptitiously slipped into the omnibus spending bill by the Senator, was done as a favor to beef cattle ranchers. Many ranchers enjoy very favorable lease rates to put grazing cattle on public rangelands, however some of those lands are also legally occupied by wild free-roaming horses under the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act. Some ranchers would like to see all the horses removed.

Many wild horse advocates have endorsed putting economic pressure on the beef industry in order for the industry to pressure Senator Burns to repeal his measure and produce a more reasonable and humane approach to deal with the wild horse population situation.

The effort is called "Eat Something Else!!!" Wild horse advocates and their allies are planning to select products other than beef for their meal entrees so long as wild horses formally under the protection of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act are at risk of going to slaughter.

"Wild horses have been protected by a law that was unanimously supported by Congress after an overwhelming show of support by the American public," observed Willis Lamm, president of one wild horse advocacy group. "Senator Burns' measure is extreme and the manner in which he dismembered a long standing public law in secret is not the kind of conduct that we should accept from any elected official."

Wild horse advocates are considering expanding what they describe as their "economic sanctions" to other areas including the tourist industries of Montana and Nevada. Nevada Senator Harry Reid is believed to have been complicit in allowing Senator Burns' measure to be slipped unnoticed into the huge spending bill.

Returning to the subject of a beef boycott, Lamm further observed, "It might not be such a bad idea for the American public to engage in a more diverse and healthy diet of 'mustang friendly foods'."